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The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on allowing U.S. companies to use International Financial Reporting Standards.

SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins told U.S. business leaders in Japan that a recently issued auditing standard should have the effect of cutting audit fees.

The American Institute of CPAs installed its new chairman, Randy Fletchall, a partner with Ernst & Young, at its Fall Meeting of Council."I'm very honored and very proud to become the next chairman of the AICPA," said Fletchall.Outgoing chair Jimmy Lee Williamson said that he is "certain that [Fletchall] will be successful and will contribute to the profession."Fletchall said that one of his priorities would be recruiting new talent to the profession. "All of us know the importance of winning the battle in the trenches," he added.Williamson also expressed the AICPA's support for the victims of the wildfires raging in Southern California. He heard from Teresa Mason, the new chair of the California Society of CPAs, that some firms in the region had to close down. "We've faced this crisis before," said Williamson. "Our thoughts are with the people of California."AICPA president and CEO Barry Melancon noted that the AICPA has a benevolence fund for members who are in need.The AICPA also awarded its 2007 Gold Medals for Distinguished Service to Kathy Eddy, a former chair of the institute, and to Gary John Previts, a former member of the governing council and board of directors. Eddy is a founding shareholder of McDonough, Eddy, Parsons & Baylous, in Parkersburg, W.Va., and serves on the board of Harsco Corp. Previts, a professor at Case Western University, serves with the Accountability Advisory Council of the Comptroller General of the U.S.

After repeated pleas from tax practitioners, lawyers and others, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced that they would extend the final deadline for compliance with new rules on nonqualified deferred-compensation plans for a year, until Dec. 31, 2008.The regulations, which provide guidance under Section 409A regarding the requirements for deferral elections and payment timing in deferred-comp plans, were in response to legislation enacted in 2004. Section 409A has been effective since Jan. 1, 2005, but the IRS did not release the final regulations until April of this year, with an original deadline of Dec. 31, 2007, which many felt was far too early, given the complexity of the plans and the amendments that companies may have to make to them.Over the summer, a number of practitioner groups, including a group of 92 separate law firms, contacted the Treasury and the IRS to press the case for more time.The IRS noted that it plans to follow up Notice 2007-86, which extends the deadline, with guidance regarding a correction program as soon as possible.

Business management software provider NetSuite is unveiling a new component to their application development and integration platform, SuiteFlex, in an effort to create more customization and ease for their customers.Launched today during the company's fifth annual partner conference, NetSuite Revolution 2007, the SuiteBundler component will allow value-added resellers to "bundle" together vertical systems, add-on applications, and end-to-end business process customizations developed with the other components of SuiteFlex -- SuiteBuilder, SuiteScript and SuiteTalk. The technology also includes a host of new micro-vertical capabilities spanning a variety of markets such as software, agriculture equipment dealerships, seaport marina management, point-of-sale retail, shipping materials franchises, electronics wholesale, distribution, pharmaceutical distribution, and human resources."What we've done," said Craig Sullivan, NetSuite vice president of product management, "is allowed these VARs with vertical expertise to take the NetSuite application and to deploy within it, using these technologies, their best practices, their expertise for specific target business, and then resell the application and expertise over and over again."Historically, Sullivan said, many VARs have worked with traditional software vendors that have enabled them to tailor systems to certain markets, but at a high price both for them and their customers."When they move from a traditional software model to the NetSuite application and understand the power of our capabilities," Sullivan explained, "They said, 'Well, hey, I want to be able to deploy this to this next customer of mine and why should I have to re-implement it?' We built this SuiteBundler capability specifically to allow them to very quickly and easily deploy those configurations and customizations out to target customers. Once they've replicated their bundle out to another customer, they can go and work with that customer to further tailor and configure it for their specific needs. We've taken away a lot of the heavy lifting, so to speak."SuiteBundler includes a three-step graphical assistant to help with the bundle-able components such as user roles, dashboards, custom tabs, lists and forms; a choice of three accessibility modes when making these bundles available to customers, including options for shared, private and an open-source community; a bundle repository where partners can go during their development process to save the customer-installation-ready version of their SuiteBundle, while continuing to work on the next iteration of their system in their NetSuite developer account; and installation process assistance."We see this as a revolution for VARs," Sullivan said. "They've long been concerned that [software as a service] would be a threat to their business, given that implementation times are relatively shorter. There is the perception that SaaS or on-demand applications are less customizable than traditional software. I think SaaS, at least in the way that NetSuite is moving forward with it, is actually an enormous enabler for these VARs to take their business to the next level and offer solutions to their customers that they could only dream about previously."For more information about SuiteBundler, visit www.netsuite.com.

Get ready to start keeping track of virtual currency, as if foreign exchange and complex financial derivatives weren’t enough of a challenge.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Congress should stop dithering on passing a fix for the Alternative Minimum Tax.

A former Arthur Andersen audit partner has settled charges brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that he assisted in a $300 million fraud committed by an audit client in 2000.Without admitting or denying the charges, Fred Gold agreed to a $100,000 fine, a permanent anti-fraud injunction, and an administrative order barring him from appearing or practicing before the commission.The SEC alleged that Gold should have known that the 2000 financial statements of American Tissue -- the audit of which he supervised and approved -- included fraudulently inflated assets and earnings, and also that in 2001 Gold altered work papers to prevent discovery of the fraud in a peer review, and later tried to hide the audit failure by destroying documents and e-mails after another accounting firm discovered American Tissue's overvalued inventory.Earlier, former Andersen audit manager John Parson and senior accountant Brendon McDonald settled SEC charges in the same matter; Parson for $50,000 and permanent suspension from practicing before the commission, and McDonald for a $30,000 penalty and a five-year suspension.

The Treasury Department has selected a Kansas professor to study the effects of financial restatements.The department picked Susan Scholz, a professor at the University of Kansas, to carry out the study, which will look at the impact of public company financial restatements and the reasons behind them. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discussed the need for a better understanding of these issues back in May.While Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and tougher auditing standards have forced companies to issue a growing number of restatements, some observers have questioned whether immaterial restatements might unnecessarily harm investor confidence.Scholz will examine the factors triggering public company financial restatements, describe the restatements, analyze their impact, and evaluate their significance.The Treasury Department chose Scholz through the competitive bidding process. She is an associate professor and Harper Faculty Fellow at the University of Kansas School of Business, and received her doctorate in business administration from the University of Southern California.

The American Institute of CPAs outlined its strategic plan and priorities at its Fall Meeting of Council and Annual Members’ Meeting.